It will be a shame if all this ends up hurting those closest to Richey, Rachel and the remaining band members, more than it helps

This is the point. There is literally nothing good that can come from this book. Yes, I am just a keyboard warrior, but really some people involved need to move on. I wondered would this have happened if his parents had still been alive. It's very sad on every level. The book will not bring Richey back.

I do not think the band would take such action without very good reason, especially with everything else that’s been going on the last couple of years. And I never thought I’d be second-guessing Rachel.

I don't think thedelays were down to legal threats but because the book wasn't ready. Delays are very very common.
Remember the toll ticket? Information about that coming out last year? They were still working on the book at that point clearly.
I feel the reviews and publicity has brought some attention to a particular detail at the last minute cos editors are a dying breed and there now needs to be a few snips

Unless SHR thought publishing some of the allegations she's made on here in the past were actually acceptable...Lordy

__________________
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more," - Byron

'I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.' (from Sea Fever - John Masefield)

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all" - Emily Dickinson

I've been wanting to reply to this thread for ages but unsure how to go about it.

Basically I went to university with SHR and almost ended up living with her but last minute my friend changed her mind so it never happened. She was known for her pretty weird behaviour towards other people back then. I don't want to go too much into it incase she comes on her and starts arguing with me. But let's just say it wasn't pleasant the way she treated others and I definitely saw an ugly side to her.

She never showed that much interest in any Manics related issues back then. So I feel it's all relatively new in the last 5-10 years. She's completely latched on to Rachel's vulnerabilities and tried to make some kind of profit from them.

I don't feel this book will offer anything new apart from maybe a few new images for the Richey archive and the odd bit of additional info.

As so many people have said, if he wants not to be found then we should respect that, much as it's heartbreaking for his family.

Commissioning editor currently saying on Twitter that the release delay is due to stock logistics. After one of the authors apparently said on Facebook that it’s due to a redactment. Never mind someone else’s deleted tweets claiming that it’s because of the band. What.

I'm not sure why I feel worked about this, never read any of these books anyway. As far as I'm concerned, the Richey most of us knew is dead. I mean that even if he did disappear, the side of him that he chose to show in the public view (The quasi Richie-Manic side if you will) is gone. The Richey that his friends and family knew, we didn't know that guy. If he's still out there and chose to let his parents to go to their graves not knowing what happened to their son, fuck that guy. That's why I don't particularly entertain theories about his disappearance because the main conceit is that Richey made the decision to hurt those closest to him, I don't think I'd be able to listen to his work in the same way if that was true.

After readings the Walesonline interview with SHR (which is 50% about how close she is with Rachel), the impression I get is that the book will be a collection of incoherent theories with no thru line. Latching on to what supports a theory and ignoring all the evidence that doesn't support her ramblings of choice. It is and has been nothing more than the most cynical cash and attention grab. Apparently she got his gig by debunking a psychic who believed they could talk to Richey. Debunk a psychic, that's setting the bar pretty fucking high there.

Maybe it needed a more experienced writer/journalist?
Maybe Rachel felt she needed a friend to write it. You can see itís hard though as it gives over your control. I can see why sheíd be so fiercely controlling over who has access to his archives, who they get to talk to, wanting her brotherís memory to be reflected in the book but a writer canít do that if they get too close. The portrait risks still being seen through a glass darkly albeit a different glass so to clumsily speak

Sure, an experienced journalist could write a book but what would it achieve? They would be following all the same rules as other biographies, but sometimes a more unusual perspective can illuminate something a standard approach would not.

Maybe that's more what Rachel was interested in, as she would probably know what a book by an experienced writer or journalist would be like. Perhaps she wanted the passion of someone not willing to accept established interpretations of an individual's story, wrapped in a Manic-shaped bag.

Despite that, I haven't made my mind up on the author. But if the work brings up just one fresh avenue that sheds new light on Richey then it may still be worthwhile.

She may have upset people with her theories and behaviour on FD. But she may also have been using it as a tool for debate rather than friend making. Lots of people are ruthless professionally but lovely in person.

She may have upset people with her theories and behaviour on FD. But she may also have been using it as a tool for debate rather than friend making. Lots of people are ruthless professionally but lovely in person.

Except her "ruthless professional behaviour" completely lacked the professional bit. Rude is rude. Professional people are able (and most importantly want) to each their goals through constructive ways.

The new evidence that has come out is that Richey crossed the Severn bridge twelve hours earlier than believed previously. Everything else is pulled from certain books he owned which had themes of disappearing or new randomers who have claimed to have seen him. If there was anything worthwhile, surely Rachel would have raised it with the police long ago. Basically the book contained speculation and allegations and it seemed that later has been pulled out.

"The so-called "psychic" claims that Richey did not stay at his hotel overnight and actually left during the night. However in a much more well-researched book about Richey (by Rob Jovanovic) we are given details of eyewitness accounts of hotel staff who saw Richey leave the hotel at 7am in the morning. So he obviously did stay there overnight."

Fast forward seven years and we learn the toll receipt was actually stamped at 2:55 AM. The plot thickens!

Let's be honest this book hasn't solved or uncovered anything worthwhile or it would be all over the news surely?
So all the sensationalism is quite ridiculous and purely just to sell the book.
Further to that I also think its the authors intention for it to be a hatchet job on the band.
After doing all the research and not actually finding out what happened it's kind of daft publishing the thing as if it has new evidence or outcomes.
Everything is likely just daft theories, speculation and in some cases downright lies!

Last edited by beautifuldistortion; 31-01-2019 at 14:03.
Reason: Checking some facts!